


31 flavors

by PaintedVanilla



Category: Hamilton - Miranda
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/M, First Dates, Ice Cream
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-26
Updated: 2018-01-26
Packaged: 2019-03-09 13:23:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,822
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13482375
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PaintedVanilla/pseuds/PaintedVanilla
Summary: “You’ve never been to Baskin Robbins?” he asks, genuinely horrified. “That’s offensive to my religion.”





	31 flavors

Dolley’s first boyfriend ever met her at Barnes and Noble in the afternoon; they had that Monday off from school. She sat with him looking at sheet music, and he showed it to her like he expected her to be impressed. She pretended to be, but she couldn’t read sheet music, so she just smiled and nodded. He bought a Sherlock Holmes book; Dolley didn’t want to spend her money on a book, so she didn’t get one. She bought a drink at the cafe and they sat outside in the sun. He kept kissing her in front of everyone. It was Dolley’s first first date.

At the beginning of her junior year in highschool she said, “I’m going to Martha’s house,” and then Martha drove her to a restaurant and dropped her off. Dolley had dinner with a girl named Emily who had pretty eyes and a charming smile. The longer they talked, however, the more the girl talked over Dolley. She would say, “My parents speak Mandarin,” and the girl would say, immediately, “That is so fun. I’ve always wanted to be bilingual. I’ve been studying Spanish for years; does this sound good to you?” and she said something in broken Spanish and Dolley smiled and nodded. When Martha picked her up at the end of the night, Dolley sank all the way down in her chair and said, “I can’t date her. I asked if she wanted to share a dessert and she told me she thinks ice cream is disgusting and listed eleven reasons why.” It was Dolley’s most annoying first date.

Dolley’s first date with her next real boyfriend was less of a date and more of two hours of making out. _He_ called it a date; he said, “Hey, let’s go on a date.” and he brought her to his dorm room. Dolley, who was under the impression that it was going to be a nice occasion, had worn a skirt and nice shoes, which was disappointing her when she took them off at the door. She sat with him on his bed and then they were kissing. They didn’t stop kissing for a very long time; even when Dolley would pull away to breath, there was always more. She laid on the bed next to him afterwards, somewhat regretting wearing a skirt, and then she noticed he was just now taking his shoes off. She spent the rest of the night thinking about it. It was Dolley’s weirdest first date.

Her first date with John was probably the best one she had ever had; he took her to dinner somewhere so pricy it made her hands shake. He didn’t interrupt her when she talked, although he wasn’t really trying that hard to listen. By the end of the evening he had barely absorbed a word she had said, despite the fact that she talked so much, but he did kiss her. He didn’t really ask, but Dolley was willing to overlook it because the date was nice. Plus, he bought her (a very expensive) dinner, so maybe she felt like she owed him. They didn’t kiss for very long before he let her go into her apartment, which she didn’t want him to see quite yet because it was horribly devoid of anything. It was Dolley’s nicest first date.

Dolley’s most recent first date was with a girl who worked one floor above her. She walked with her to get lunch, and when they sat down and got their drinks, she said, “Tell me about your dark past.” It was a joke, but Dolley, flustered by the odd request and always eager to please, said, “My parents never held me as a child. They also traumatized me because I bought a thirty dollar backpack and now I feel guilty every time I spend money.” The girl, who’s eyes were now very wide, stood up and left the restaurant. It was Dolley’s shortest first date.

Technically, this isn’t even Dolley’s first date with James; they’ve already agreed they’ve been on three dates prior to this one, all of which consisted of getting coffee and sitting across the street from a dog park. But now they’ve agreed they’re actually dating, and they’ve kissed, and they’ve established they want to do something besides get coffee and look at dogs they can’t get up to pet. And now Dolley doesn’t know what to do with herself.

Martha is still in France; Dolley wishes she had the courage to bother her on the last day of her honeymoon. Instead she’s laying in bed, alone, her blanket wrapped around her head and her feet kind of hurting. Dolley’s phone is laying on her nightstand; she’s been good about not bugging her. She hasn’t even mentioned that she and James have been hanging out. She hasn’t mentioned that they’ve kissed and they’ve decided to go on actual dates now. She even thinks this is information Martha would like to know, but she’s trying to pace herself. She should be able to go two weeks without talking to her best friend. That’s only fourteen days; Dolley doesn’t want to fuck up on the thirteenth.

Dolley likes James; she likes him a lot. She can’t remember exactly when her feelings shifted from platonic to romantic, but she knows they’re romantic now. He makes her laugh and when he can’t sleep she stays up and texts him. He sends her screenshots every time Peaches visits his yard. He doesn’t like talking on the phone; he seems to have an easier time saying things when he sends it in a text rather than having to say the words out loud.

Dolley can still keep track of how many times they’ve kissed (five). All very chaste. All shared on the same park bench. James has only had that many in his life. Dolley has had maybe a hundred times that many. She feels kind of silly thinking about it. She’s looking forward to kissing him again.

…

James doesn’t know where to take Dolley on their first real date - he doesn’t know where to take anyone on any date. He’s never been the kind of person who went on dates. He never got asked out on dates. He only managed to ask someone out once, and it didn’t end well for him. He wants Dolley to like him; Dolley is better at this than he is, and he knows this because she’s had other boyfriends, so clearly she knows how to get from point A to point B. He’s not even sure how he got halfway between the points in the first place.

He ends up taking her to Baskin Robbins, because he procrastinates trying to figure out the perfect place to take her until she’s actually in his car with him and he tells her _it’s a surprise_ when she asks where they’re going.

James panics as soon as they walk into the store on account of the uncomfortable look on Dolley’s face, “Are you lactose intolerant?” he asks, and she looks down at him.

“What? No.” she says.

“Do you not like ice cream?” he asks, worrying he’s ruining this because he’s terrible at it.

“No, I - ice cream is good.” Dolley says.

James hesitates, then he says, “You look uncomfortable.”

Dolley blushes, then she looks down at her shoes, “I’ve just never been here.”

“You’ve never been to Baskin Robbins?” he asks, genuinely horrified, and Dolley looks back up at him, “that’s offensive to my religion.”

She laughs, a short snort, and he smiles at her.

“Can you do me a favor?” James asks while Dolley looks at all the flavors; she looks at him and nods, “Can you not order anything with nuts? Because I’m allergic and if you eat nuts we can’t kiss. Not that you have to kiss me.” he adds quickly, and Dolley smiles and nods again.

She starts to look back at the flavors, but she pauses, “Aren’t you going to look at the flavors?”

“I already know what I want.” James tells her.

“Oh.” Dolley says, then she steps away from the counter, “we can order.”

James frowns, “You didn’t finish looking.”

“I know what I want.” Dolley says.

James orders a double scoop of gold metal ribbon in a waffle cone and Dolley orders one scoop of classic vanilla in a cup. They sit down across from one another at a table in the corner.

“Why didn’t you want to try any of their flavors?” James asks, and Dolley shrugs.

“Most of them had nuts.” she says, which he knows is a lie because he’s here all the time, “and I like vanilla. And I was worried I would try something I didn’t like.”

“I can’t believe you’ve never been to Baskin Robbins before.” James says, “where did your parents take you? Ben and Jerry’s?” Dolley shakes her head since she’s in the middle of taking a bite of her ice cream; James tries again, “Marble Slab?” she shakes her head again, and he has to think for a moment, “Cold Stone?”

“My parents didn’t take me to get ice cream.” Dolley says, and James looks a bit taken aback.

“Really?” he asks, “not even when you made, like, honor roll or something?”

“I never made honor roll with all A’s. I always had a B in math, so I didn’t even get a break on making dinner.” she takes another bite of her ice cream, “I had ice cream for the first time at Eliza Schuyler’s house in the fifth grade.”

James blinks, “Really?” he asks, and she nods, “well, do you at least buy it for yourself now?”

“No.” Dolley says simply, “I don’t really think about it.”

“Have you ever had a sundae?” James asks, and Dolley shakes her head, “have you ever had a parfait?”

“I don’t know what that is.” Dolley tells him.

“It’s like, a layer of toppings, and then ice cream, and then another layer of toppings, and then more ice cream, and then more toppings.” he explains.

Dolley hums, “Nope, never had that.”

“Have you ever had a milkshake?” he asks, and she shakes her head, “have you ever - ”

“James?” Dolley says, looking up at him, “I can count.” she holds up her cup, “this is the seventh scoop of ice cream I’ve ever had.”

James stares at her, “The seventh?”

“Yes, the seventh.” Dolley says, “thank you, it’s a treat.”

James hesitates, then he says, “I have to take you on a lot more dates.”

“Why is that?” Dolley asks.

“So you can try everything here.” James says.

“I can’t have anything with nuts while I’m around you.” Dolley reminds him.

“Sure you can, you just can’t kiss me.”

“What if I want to kiss you?”

“Then you’ll just have to brush your teeth and wait a few hours, because I want you to try everything in this store.”


End file.
